Date Watched: 29 July 2018
Rating: 9/10

So this was a documentary, not a movie, but regardless I'm going to talk about it because even though I didn't relate, it was extremely disheartening.

If you aren't aware of it, it's a documentary about how triplets separated at birth find each other at age 19. Of course it's amazing, but their parents are skeptical. They get some answers from the adoption agency, but it wasn't the full answer and slowly but surely, the truth is uncovered.

If you don't want spoilers, stop reading now.

They end up finding out that they were part of an experiment to see how identical twins/triplets would grow up if they were separated and put into families of differing economic statuses and parenting styles. One was in an affluent family with an okay parenting style, one was in a blue collar family with very affectionate/hands-on parents and the last one was put in a middle-class family with a very strict father. Ultimately, they wanted to test what's more important; nature or nurture.

Turns out, all the boys had serious mental issues - depression in particular - which may have been caused by separation anxiety and most likely inherited from their mother (which seems to be the case for all the twins/triplets tested). Unfortunately one of the three got super manic depression and committed suicide. One feels guilty and wishes it was him instead. It was really sad.

What makes the whole thing sketchy was that it was all orchestrated by a 'prestigious' Jewish adoption agency. The experiment was run by an Austrian (survived the holocaust). They did research, but the study was never published and when asked about it before he died, he was very reluctant. They kept the files at Yale and they were supposed to be locked till 2066, and the only way to get access to them before then was through a powerful Jewish agency but they denied everyone till this documentary came out. The remaining two brothers got to see them.

That's kind of a weird, brief rundown of it - but the experiment was so unethical, it's shocking to think someone thought this was okay. Someone in the movie said, "The minute you start to play with humans, something is wrong." And that's it. Like, took the words right out of my mouth. These kids went through separation anxiety, and various mental illnesses just because you wanted to see what? All the surviving members of the research team have different stories for why the experiment was conducted - either way, it's sickening.

Overview: A definite must-watch. It's extremely intriguing and it will break your heart.